Edward Gresham Ball (March 21, 1888 – June 24, 1981) was a businessman who wielded powerful political influence in Florida for decades. Referred to as "a law unto himself", despite the fact that he never held public office and did not own much of the assets he controlled, he led a forest products company, a railroad and owned newspapers. He worked for and with his brother-in-law Alfred I. du Pont for nine years before running the Alfred I. duPont Testamentary Trust's businesses himself for another 46 years. He founded and led the St. Joe Paper Company to become a major player in several industries in Florida. He was a leader of the anti-communist Pork Chop Gang, a group of Democratic Party legislators from North Florida.
Early years
Edward Ball was born at Ball's Neck near Kilmarnock in Northumberland County, Virginia and educated in the one-room Shiloh Schoolhouse. After completing primary school, he convinced his father to let him quit school and get a job. He had always been obsessed with making money; at one time, he prospected for gold in Alaska. However, when Ball's older sister, Jessie Ball became the third wife of Alfred I. du Pont in 1921, Edward was given the chance of a lifetime. He began working for his brother-in-law in 1923 at the lofty salary of $5,000 a year, and moved to Delaware where he was publicly named manager of the Clean Food Products Company. Privately, he was Mr. du Pont's confidential business partner and became a shrewd financier and caretaker of the du Pont de Nemours estate fortune. After Jessie & Alfred moved to Florida in 1926, Edward joined them.
du Pont's death
When Alfred died in 1935, his estate was valued at over $56 million, which, after estate taxes of $30 million, left $26 million. Alfred's will named Jessie as the principal trustee, but in reality, she deferred business decisions to her brother, Edward, who took control of the assets of the testamentary trusts, which included large Florida landholdings and industrial interests, including the Florida East Coast Railway. Jessie preferred to handle the philanthropic activities of the trust while Edward concentrated on making money.
Power
Ball had no interest in running for office and little desire for material things; for most of his life, he didn't even own an automobile. Ball used various means to acquire enormous unofficial political power in Florida. He amassed a wide network of connections, and was the key figure in a group of 20 rural, conservative, north Florida politicians that controlled Florida from the 1930s to the 1960s called the Pork Chop Gang that spawned Florida's version of McCarthyism. Their public spokesman was Florida Senate President Charley Eugene Johns from Starke. The coalition supported racial segregation (which was practiced at the St. Joe Paper Mill) and was known for toasting "Confusion to the Enemy!" with Jack Daniel's whiskey.
Ball rarely, if ever, took a public role in politics. With control over the vast du Pont business empire, he exerted political influence through his Florida banking empire, his ownership of numerous Florida newspapers, and by funneling unregulated and unreported cash to political operatives. Ball did not need to get his hands dirty or risk personal resources. Ball was a main (but not the only) financer of the defeat of Claude Pepper in his bid for reelection to the United States Senate in 1950. Pepper's liberalism and Ball's conservatism feuded through much of the 1940s and 1950s, prompting a book to be written in 2000: Claude Pepper and Ed Ball: Politics, Purpose, and Power.
According to a 1979 article in The New York Times, Edward Ball at various times was called a Robber Baron and a political power broker; a clever man with a dollar and a dangerous man to cross; a courtly Virginian with the ladies and a ruthless foe. He is known for "orneriness" but insists his reputation is undeserved; he claims he was just a trusted functionary who did his best for the institution he served. Critics say he hijacked the trust as a tool of his personal power, treating the assets like a miser hoarding every coin. He had the reputation of a "tart-tongued, hard-nosed conservative financier".
Personal life
By all accounts, Edward Ball took little time for a personal life. Early on, he travelled constantly, scouting for possible acquisitions and checking up on existing assets.